Black Hebrew Deported By Israel

February 26, 1986|By Maurice Possley.

A member of the Black Hebrew religious sect wanted by federal authorities here on a charge of funneling $700,000 in stolen checks from Chicago to Europe was in federal custody Tuesday in New York City after being deported from Israel.

Robert L. Fraise, 27, formerly of Atlanta, was arrested Friday by deputy U.S. marshals as he stepped off a plane in New York City. He was deported by Israeli authorities as a result of his arrest there last December.

Fraise and two other men, Eric D. Holley, and Donald J. Edwards, both former South Side residents were indicted by a federal grand jury in Chicago in 1981 on charges of wire fraud. The indictment charged that they cashed $700,000 in cashier`s checks and other financial instruments that had been stolen from four Loop banks and thrift institutions in 1979 and 1980.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Patrick Deady, who investigated the case, said Holley and Edwards were still fugitives. Deady said proceedings would be begun to extradite Fraise to Chicago to face the charges.

Fraise was arrested in December by Israeli security forces when he produced phony identification after being stopped as he returned to Israel from Lebanon, Deady said. When investigators checked further, they learned his true identity and that he was wanted in Chicago.

Fraise also was wanted on a fugitive warrant in New York City. He had been charged with failing to report several thousands of dollars in currency when he entered the country on another occasion about five years ago, Deady said. He had pleaded guilty to the charge but fled before he could be sentenced.

The Black Hebrews are a Chicago-based religious sect that established a colony in Israel. In 1980 a major federal investigation of the group was begun after local banks and two airlines contended they had been bilked out of $4.4 million, which prosecutors suspected was being used to bankroll the Israeli colony.

Fraise, Holley and Edwards were accused of using forged passports to travel from the U.S. to Frankfurt, West Germany; Amsterdam; Zurich; and other European cities where they cashed the stolen checks. The checks had been stolen from the First Federal Savings & Loan Association of Chicago, Sears Bank & Trust Co., Northern Trust Co. and Bell Federal Savings & Loan Association.

In many of the alleged fraud schemes investigated by the FBI, authorities said a Black Hebrew obtained a job as a clerk or bank teller and, after a few months, stole or forged a small number of large checks, according to investigators. The checks were often cashed at banks in cities in other countries on accounts that were later identified as belonging to Black Hebrews, according to authorities.

Deady said that during the investigation gold bars worth about $50,000 were seized from a safe-deposit box in a bank in Zurich. He said investigators planned to compare Fraise`s finger and palm prints with prints found on the gold bars.